Slightly disinter-mediated notes follow – pardon redundancies and lack of chronology if such things concern you
June 30, Kinen hospital etc
Morning set kissa ¥500
Hospital (IV & MECFS consult)
Taxi ¥800 to pharmacy to drop scrips (to be courier home)
Now secret Café set lunch ¥1200 with side of postcard ¥100 scribbling
{Dr says my body is changing + delicate and needs calm & quiet times at beach & other nature}
Doctor said there’s a little bit more sparkle and life coming back into my eyes and I don’t look so *completely lost* in an crippling fog of exhaustion…
Maybe, what do you think? Is there a twinkle? Maybe it’s just my “made in Okayama” straw hat
The wonderful gentleman at the café and I exchange postcards, either by post or bring them when I visit, in this case I presented him with one of the foldable zines made for Ichiro’s birthday party (he had helped us source hamburger buns amongst other advice) as well as a choice of postcards from the wide selection of the well, postcards made for the birthday
In turn he presented me with a five leaf clover and a very kind note on reverse… Because we’re pals here, I guess anyway, I’m gonna share with you but don’t share with anyone else OK
BTW, last night in parenting, super impressed my now 5-year-old by:
Making some awesome crispy roast chicken thighs that he declared “the best I’ve ever had”
Getting Moana soundtrack in both English and Japanese
And beating fck out of a cockroach with a newspaper
Ace moves Dad
In other news, wife bought a used green Yamaha accordion // coming by post
I am absurdly excited about this new arrival to our family (her grandfather Ichiro was a noted accordionist with his photo still hanging at the community hall from a performance in 1947)
Update:
Came home from the hospital and lunch activities (using 5 modes of transport in full circuit) and just rocked garbage, dishes, mugi-cha, rabbit food + freezing 4 bags of lentil dal, now freshen up bed and bedroom Oh, a box of peaches was delivered
Friendly note: While in midst of shaking off the complications of day out and trying to take good care of wifu (who’s worked out in the heat today and got a bee(?) sting) & son who’s a bit overwhelmed with recent visitors, a kind thanks to all of you offering kind words / i & we see you
Since we’re here, let’s continue
PS it’s hard to understand so I didn’t tell you about our recent dani mite infestation and fumigation / seriously, I keep a very tight & tidy house
Ergo: from June 26
- Evidence of mite situation in beloved kura barn studio
- Covered electronics, mics, lights etc. with flags and sarongs
- Taped cracks in front door
- Released 3 fumigation bombs
- Let linger for 2+ days, air out 3+ with fans
- Now a thorough vacuum & wipe down is needed
Wanna help :)?
These little fckers got into the bedroom requiring me to do a complete clean out of the caboose, which is a brand new clean room like exquisitely clean so I must’ve crossed transferred in somehow but it sure caused me a lot of hassle doing a full fresh up of all the mattresses, linens and laying traps for the other critters… I can’t believe I’m telling you all this
June 29: always tidying up the campsite
Since we’re on the topic of linens and mattresses, after recent guest left, I made sure to air out all the futons & pillows as is the usual routine in Japan and, because I’m ridiculous, I took a snapshot
Meanwhile at the oasis…
I also set up the pool for summer fun along with flags and awnings and chairs to make “Tsuchida Beach Club” which, while enjoyable once it set up, takes a tremendous stack of energy for me to set up the block base and panels for the whole thing to mount on and running the strings, running cord for the pump and running the hose and all of that… I would very much like a photo of my kid in his snappy outfit without the gun but people keep on giving him guns of different kinds as presents as well as knives – wtf
June 25: Okayama university Hospital, pain center
Timestamp Hospital ninja mode engaged (almost) max sense shut down
Recap:
Received barrage of 7cm lidocaine injections
Recovering in quiet corner with a vending machine bevvie
The doctor is from my not-so-secret sorta-favorite hot spring town!
We discussed Misasa, Tottori (which has a disproportionate amount of ancillary material and discussion in this archive
PS I enjoy riding the buses when it’s like my private limousine / it’s my “driverless car”
Topics un/der-discussed
I haven’t told you about so many things because I’m really un-enamored with the functionality of these sort of digital publishing tools right now yet maybe sometime we’ll discuss:
* a fantastic birthday party for Ichiro with make your own burger bar, foldable zines, banana smoothies and cool parents along with the awesome kids
* so many groups of friends visiting, each deserves his own essay but none of those will be created because those are for me and for them
[sidenote: it is very interesting to see how some people really adapt well to rambling around Japan and others spend a lot of their time explaining what Japan should do differently and guffawing at all the unique processes and procedures]
* we’ve moved into the caboose about a month ago and there’s a whole story about how that was made – it’s so very natural, insulated with hemp and sheep wall, there’s an entire tree from a shrine inside, a dozen different kinds of wood, a coffee kettle, a movable staircase and a Dutch door that needs oiled
* there’s the story about the akiya down the laneway that I’d like to buy and turn into an arts/community good times enjoyment venue/guest house but it’s 98% not gonna happen
* caught up with some friends who work at the company that I used to company at and heard some things, then I’m not sure how to feel about what I heard but anyway I heard things
++ Apricots, plums, tea ceremonies, ice creams, a planetarium, a lot of dinosaur stuff, a lot of Lego blocks (often of robot things I don’t understand), buying interesting stocks for Ichiro’s savings so he can cheer for them like sports teams (except unlike the sports team I cheer for they won’t fail continually for their entire existence), visit to shrine and temples, always with the postcards and sometimes with the zines — and trying to move forward on my poetry book “a circumnavigation, of sorts” but there is laundry to fold, dishes to wash, baths to fill and lists to check off… so we go on
Road trip pending, pending pending
And me and the exceptional duo of Ryoko and Ichiro are planning in August road trip to make up for the road trip we didn’t do last year and to really spend some time with just the three of us although we’ll visit some sensei, wizards, hermits, possibly a niece and some big band musicians along the way
And did I tell you me and Ichiro have been going to a very “interesting” large, cavernous, loud and heated by garbage incineration pool most Mondays? I’m teaching them how to swim and I’m teaching my body how to move again – lots of elderly folks and then the local fire water rescue squad training there and I look at these youngish and ripped dudes and I think “yeah, in a couple weeks I’ll be able to beat them in 100 m”
Sheesh, I just came to tell you about my straw hat, various injections, lunches and postcards and drifted off to a few more topics but anyway, so we go on
